Sportolysis – The World Sports Blog

The IPL Final between the Chennai Superkings and Mumbai Indians was a superb contest which swung from one way to the other. You couldn’t have asked for more.

In the end, two things cost Mumbai the match. Firstly their fielding – dropping Raina twice proved costly. Mumbai has been poor in the field right through the IPL and it finally came up to haunt them in this game.

The captaincy, for which Tendulkar has been praised right through, fell short too. Sending Harbhajan Singh, keeping Pollard in the dug out till the very late were both poor decisions.

Tendulkar also made a strategic mistake when he batted in my opinion. Tendulkar has been known for his placement shots in the past two years but when the run rate climbed to above 13, he went to play power shots instead which were never going to work. There were at least three shots including the one on which he got out which would have gone for fours or a six had he had more power in his hand.

Tendulkar and Pollard batted out of their skins though and have to be credited for that. Disappointingly for the Mumbai Indians no other batsman made much of a contribution.

Dhoni and Raina had a very crucial partnership which changed the complexion of the match. Dhoni put the fielders in the right places mostly (I still don’t get why he put a slip right at the very end though) and Chennai held their catches.

They have a good all round team with guys like Murali Vijay (who is a terrific young player), the ever reliable Dhoni, Raina, Badrinath, Hayden and bowlers like Jakati (who is always consistent), Aswhin (who gave less than 3 runs an over in the 5 ‘first overs’ he bowled in the IPL), Bollinger (who added the sharpness to the teeth in the bowling). Importantly, Murali came to the party as well.

It was a good all round effort and kudos to them for winning the title.

Harsha Bhogle writes on Tendulkar’s captaincy –

And at the IPL, Sachin Tendulkar continues his purple patch, this time not just as batsman but as captain. He must enjoy this because while his inbox is forever full of accolades about his batting, the captaincy folder has not always been overflowing. But in the first half of the IPL, his leadership has been a breath of fresh air.

Tendulkar’s challenge, though, will be to keep his team hungry game after game. Sometimes a winning streak can pose a leadership challenge; players can become complacent, start believing they merely need to turn up

In the first game he backed his youngsters, Saurabh Tiwary, Ambati Rayudu and R Sathish, and played only three overseas players. In every game thereafter he has given these young players the confidence they need by sending them out at crucial moments. Tiwary, for example, has retained his No. 4 slot ahead of Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard, Rayudu gets to bat at No. 5, and even Sathish, just returning from the ICL, has a clearly defined role: if he gets 15 or 20 in quick time at the end, and does little else, his captain seems quite happy with him.

Bravo and Pollard occasionally get the No. 3 slot to allow themselves to rediscover form, but I think the best move of all has been to put Ryan McLaren in the side and, in doing so, freeing Lasith Malinga to play the role Tendulkar likes him to: bowl after the new ball and at the death. It helps that McLaren can bat, and indeed the Mumbai Indians now have three allrounders in crucial areas and a floater in Sathish. McLaren doesn’t mind bowling up front and that allows Malinga to bowl no more than one over early on, leaving his captain with enough options at the end.

I have always believed Tendulkar is a great captain and has one of the best cricketing minds. Hope Mumbai Indians can win the IPL and people start rating Tendulkar’s captaincy for a change.

Regarding his batting, he is batting better than even 1998 in my opinion. He doesn’t hit air shots now which go for catches, he has three shots for every delivery and he is hitting types of scoops and leg side hits I have not seen in nearly 20 years of cricket watching.

Regarding the Chennai-Rajasthan match, T20 cricket has an aspect of baseball coming in with sixes. 30 sixes in one game. My god. Murali Vijay, Naman Ojha – terrific talents. Bangalore (Kallis – awesome) and Mumbai have been absolutely great to watch but it is not that much about them now. The race for the 3rd and 4th spot is very hot and the tournament gets interesting now.

Keep watching what his been the best IPL so far in my opinion.